LAS VEGAS — It shouldn’t be any surprise that the four roster players from last season that are here with the 2019 Summer League squad all drew starts as the Nets opened play against the Dallas Mavericks at Cox Pavilion, or that they did the bulk of the scoring for Brooklyn.
Jarrett Allen (19 points), Theo Pinson (14 points), Rodions Kurucs (14 points) and Dzanan Musa (12 points) combined for well more than half Brooklyn’s output in a 96-92 loss at Cox Pavilion.
“We’re taking it game-by-game, but we definitely came out here with the thought of giving them as much experience as possible and putting them in some different situations,” said coach Adam Harrington. “But it will be game-to-game. Everybody on our roster’s going to get an opportunity and this was game one and I think will look at it in game two. But for sure those guys, we’re heavily going to rely on them to not only do it on the basketball court but lead off the court.”
The four of them are close in age and experience, but come to Las Vegas from different angles. For Allen and Kurucs, there’s an opportunity to step into leading roles and experiment with expanding their games. The 21-year-old Allen has been Brooklyn’s starting center since halfway through his rookie season, while Kurucs made a surprise impact as a rookie last year, starting for more than half the year.
The most notable new look was Allen breaking out an attempt at a Eurostep that brought Spencer Dinwiddie out of his sideline seat, even though the big man didn’t close the deal.
“I’ve been working on it,” said Allen. “Nowadays every big has it. So Giannis’ brother did it on me, and I was like, you know what, if I get the ball I’m gonna try it back on him. It went wall until I tried to shoot the ball. It just shows that I’m improving so I’m able to bring that out during the game.”
For Musa and Pinson, who spent most of their rookie seasons in the G League last year, it’s an opportunity to make a case for larger roles in Brooklyn this season. As they do so, there’s a benefit to playing alongside Allen and Kurucs, teammates that they’re familiar and comfortable with, and who are more advanced than your average Summer League player.
“I think it is,” said Allen. “It gives them more confidence. We’re all friends, we’re all the same age, we’re all going for the same thing. I’ve been able to have the opportunity to play in the NBA, to start in the NBA and know how the role and be better in the big man position. It gives them a sense of playing with NBA guys.”
As a group, the four players fill a leadership role that you ordinarily don’t see in such numbers on a Summer League team. For draftees Nic Claxton and Jaylen Hands or the rest of the invited players on the roster, Allen, Kurucs, Musa and Pinson are players that know how Brooklyn does things and can share their experiences.
“It’s been incredible,” said Harrington. “I talked to some of our invited guys that are fresh out of college and it’s such a unique experience that you get to learn exactly how we’re doing it. Not only is our staff, our performance, our coaching staff, everybody around, but we have guys that have been in this program and have been very successful in it. It’s helped make our job easier.”
COMING UP SHORT AGAINST DALLAS
Trailing by 11 points at halftime, the Nets were tied in the fourth quarter and within a point with under a minute to go before the Mavericks closed it out.
Point guard Josh Gray was Brooklyn’s fifth starter, and he joined the other four in double figures with 14 points. The LSU product had some G League and brief NBA experience before playing last season in Korea.
Allen had eight rebounds, as did Hands, the rookie point guard. Pinson had six assists.
“We were really happy in the second half,” said Harrington. “I think we turned it up. We talked about it halftime, just like, welcome to the NBA Summer League. There’s a lot of really good basketball players here that are really hungry. I thought Dallas came out really aggressive, really physical. The game was physical the whole 40 minutes. But I’m happy the way we responded, even some of our young guys. But at the end of the day we had to value the ball better. We talked about that. I think they had 27 points off 22 turnovers, so that’s too much in a 40-point game. Good first day and some guys got their feet wet and some of our roster guys got some really good experience to have the ball in their hands.”